1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a general-purpose management system for business management and administration including financial management, inventory management, personnel management and construction management in shops, offices and enterprises.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Business management and administration in shops, offices and enterprises take on a variety of forms. Owing to the present availability of small computers at a comparatively low cost, attempts are being made to implement management of the type described by using computer systems Some of these attempts have been partially successful. However, the conventional computer management systems are still functionally inadequate and not easy to use. The reason is that management is of a wide variety of types each of which is implemented individually.
Let us take an engineering firm as an example. In order for such a firm to do business, the types of management necessary include financial management such as the preparation of ledgers for payments, accounts payable and accounts not yet paid, cost accounting, profit-and-loss accounting and the preparation of statements of accounts; inventory management for ascertaining the amount of available stocks of materials and the like; construction management such as the preparation of written estimates, the making of entries in construction ledgers, totalization classified by construction site, the preparation of work progress tables classified by construction site and the preparation of lists classified by individual, department and site; and personnel management including the preparation of totals tables classified by individual and site. Despite the fact that these various management items are mutually related, each type of management is performed separately of the others in the prior art. For example, financial management is executed by the individual in charge of financial affairs, while inventory management is performed by the person in charge at the construction site or by the individual in charge of the purchase of materials. When materials have been acquired, the amount of stock of that material increases accordingly and results in an account that must be paid. Accordingly, the purchase of material is a basic factor resulting in a change that must be taken into account not only in inventory management but also in financial management. With the conventional computer management system, a change in one factor requires that an operator perform input processing two or more times. Moreover, there are many cases where the input format (the document used for making inputs)) differs for each and every management item. Accurate input processing in such a situation is impossible unless the operator is highly experienced.